Twitch Will Begin Selling Games In Move To Support Streamers
Streaming giant Twitch is to begin selling games in a new scheme to support streamers. Launching later this year, it will mean viewers can purchase a game straight from Twitch – with a cut of the money going to the developer, streamer and Twitch themselves.
For each purchase, a streamer will earn 5% of the game’s price and the buyer also gets a ‘Twitch Crate’ full of goodies such as bits. The service is not a storefront, however, and while buyers will need to use the Twitch Launcher to redeem their game – it can be redeemed on other services such as Uplay.
It’s certainly a good move for streamers and comes from the right company to provide more competition against Steam – Twitch is owned by Amazon, after all. Certain games’ success thrive off streaming – the recent Conan Exiles being a perfect example.
However, it does raise more concerns over just how much streamers are ‘Paid Advertisers’. Many publishers and PR companies often refer to them as ‘Influencers’ but now, when a streamer is making money from a product they are playing, it may raise further questions.
Twitch is set to launch the program later on this year and will immediately begin with a barrage of support from various developers and publishers. Supporters include, “Raw Fury, Ubisoft, Tiny Build, Digital Extremes, Telltale Games, Campo Santo, Devolver Digital, Fred Wood, Gambitious, Hi-Rez Studios, Ink Stories, Paradox, Proletariat, Versus Evil, Trion Worlds, Vlambeer, Bit Studios, Blue Mammoth Games, Jackbox Games and Double Fine Studios.
